Image
Airbus
A Russian plane carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board has crashed near Nekhel in the north of Sinai, Egypt confirmed Saturday, Reuters, RT, Sputnik report.

According to a security official at the scene, the airliner is completely destroyed and all passengers are feared dead.

The plane went down in a mountainous area in central Sinai and poor weather has made it difficult for rescue crews to get to the scene, the official said. Survivors and bodies of those on board will be flown to Cairo, he said.

There are no indications that the Russian Airbus was shot down, Egyptian security sources said.

Egypt's North Sinai is home to a two-year-old Islamist insurgency and militants affiliated to Islamic State have killed hundreds of soldiers and police.


Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has canceled all his scheduled visits Saturday and formed a cabinet level crisis committee to deal with the crash.

An Egyptian Health Ministry official said 45 ambulances have been sent to central Sinai's Al-Hasana City, adding that an "emergency status" was declared.

A source in Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) told RIA Novosti the Metrojet/Kogalymavia Flight 9268 carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew took off from Sharm El-Sheikh at 3.31 GMT and went off radar after 23 minutes of flight.

Inferfax, quoting embassy sources, said, only Russian citizens, including 17 children, were on board the plane.

The Russian A321 captain informed air-traffic controller of technical faults after take-off and asked for route change, a source in the Sharm el-Sheikh airport told RIA Novosti.

Russian Emergencies Ministry is gathering ad hoc task force to address possible plane crash in Egypt.

Initial reports about the fate of the airliner were conflicting, with the head of Egypt's central air traffic accident authority saying the plane was safe.

"The... Russian airline had told us that the Russian plane we lost contact with is safe and that it has contacted Turkish air traffic control and is passing through Turkish skies now," Ayman al-Muqaddam said in a statement.

Metrojet had a fatal incident in 2011, when one of its planes caught fire on a runway in Surgut Airport in Russia's Urals. Three people died and 40 were injured as the plane burned out in just 10 minutes.

The last major Russian airline accident happened in November 2013, when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed at Kazan International Airport while attempting to land. Fifty people died.